Mahmoud Abbas Biography

Mahmoud Abbas (born 1935) became chairman of the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) after Yasir Arafat died in November of 2004, and
two months later was easily elected president of the Palestinian
Authority. He is the leader of Fatah, the nationalist Palestinian
political wing whose principal rival, the Islamic Hamas, gained
legislative control of the Authority early in 2006. The United States
and Great Britain support Abbas, seen as a moderate, instead of Hamas,
which has refused to recognize Israel.

His leadership "was meant to open a new, post-Yasir Afarat chapter
in Israeli-Palestinian relations in which the peace plan known as the
road-map was meant to lead both sides towards resolution," the
British Broadcasting Corporation wrote on its BBC News website.
"But, on one side the bitter struggle between Israel and Hamas has
left him on the sidelines. On the other, the power struggle with
Arafat—who had refused to hand over crucial powers to Mr.
Abbas—limited his ability to act and took up much of his
time." Abbas met late in 2006 with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert to discuss peace plans and planned to meet with U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice in 2007.

Family Fled to Syria

Abbas, known widely as Abu Mazen, or "Father of Mazen," was
born in 1935 in Safed, British Mandate Palestine. His family moved to
Syria in 1948, during the Arab-Israeli war that erupted after the United
Nations recognized Israel by dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab
states. He worked variously as a laborer and schoolteacher before
obtaining his bachelor of arts degree from Damascus University. After
studying law in Egypt, he earned his Ph.D. from Oriental College in
Moscow. Abbas co-founded Fatah with Arafat in the 1950s while in exile in
Qatar, where he was a personnel director in the civil service. He helped
recruit several Palestinians who would become important PLO operatives. In
addition, he accompanied the PLO leader in Jordan, Tunisia, and Lebanon.
"In the early days of the movement, he became respected for his
clean and simple living," BBC News wrote. Abbas has also been a
member of the Palestine National Council since 1968.

Over the years Abbas worked best behind the scenes. "Mahmoud Abbas
always kept to the background, but also built up a network of powerful
contacts that included Arab leaders and heads of intelligence
services," according to BBC News. He raised considerable money for
the organization in the 1970s and was also a security operative. In 1980
Arafat named him head of the PLO's subdivision for national and
international relations.

"Abbas has long been considered an exponent of a peaceful solution
to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," the website MidEast Web
wrote. "He advocated negotiations with Israelis and negotiated a
dialogue with Jewish and pacifist movements in the 1970s." Some
Jewish groups, however, have widely criticized Abbas, in particular for
his 1984 book
The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism
, that evolved from his doctorate. Critics said he understated the number
of Jewish deaths during the Holocaust and accused some Jews of working
with the Nazi regime. According to BBC News, Abbas denied those charges in
a 2003 interview with the Israeli daily newspaper
Haaretz
.

Abbas drew widespread praise for his role in the Oslo talks that resulted
in the 1993 accord in which Israelis and the PLO agreed on mutual
recognition. He accompanied Arafat to the White House for the signing of
the Oslo Declaration of Principles at a ceremony with U.S. President Bill
Clinton. Abbas has overseen the PLO's negotiating affairs
department since 1994. "In the light of his origins in Safed in
Galilee—which is now northern Israel—he is said to hold
strong views about the right of return of Palestinian refugees,"
BBC News wrote. In 1996 the PLO elevated him to second in command behind
Arafat.

First Head of Palestinian Authority

In March of 2003, Arafat, under pressure from the administration of U.S.
President George W. Bush, appointed Abbas as the first prime minister of
the Palestinian Authority. The White House had frozen Arafat out of peace
talks. Craig Nelson, in the Australian-based newspaper
The Age
, summarized the degree of difficulty in Abbas's juggling act.
"Your boss is Yasir Arafat, who tries to undercut you at every
turn. The president of the United States is pressing you to stop Islamic
militant groups from carrying out suicide bombings. The man sitting across
from you at the negotiating table—the hawkish, settlement-building
Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon—represents everything you have
fought against during your career," Nelson wrote in a profile on
Abbas. "Compounding your difficulties is the fact that you are not
elected." While Abbas never criticized Arafat publicly while the
latter was alive, they argued heatedly many times in private.

Abbas quit as prime minister after four months of struggles with Arafat
over control of Palestinian security forces. Ahmed Qurei succeeded him.
Abbas became PLO chairman after Arafat died in November of 2004, and two
months later he was easily elected Palestinian Authority president.

Battled Frequently with Hamas

The United States and Israel looked favorably upon Abbas, who distanced
himself from the terror groups and was one of the first Palestinian
leaders to recognize Israel's right to exist. But in 2005 and 2006,
Abbas's internal struggles intensified. While Fatah, through Abbas,
controlled the presidency, Hamas took legislative control of the
Palestinian Authority in January of 2006. The following December, Abbas
said he would call early elections, including that of his own office, as a
way of settling the political disputes that had escalated into violence
during the year. "We shall not continue this vicious
circle," Abbas, as quoted in the
Washington Post
, told legislators, religious leaders, and political supporters in
Ramallah, West Bank. "Let us go back to the people and let them
have their say."

Hamas officials, however, said they would not agree to a new election so
early in the four-year term, and questioned Abbas's right to call
such an election. "If the president is willing to go to early
elections, he can resign and enter an early presidential election,"
Hamas official Fawzi Barhoun told the
Washington Post
. "We were elected by the Palestinians, and we are not willing to
go through with this experiment. The president's call is
illegitimate."

Some observers said Abbas's move was crafted to pressure Hamas to
renew stalled talks about a coalition government. But Robert Malley and
Henry Siegman in the
International Herald Tribune
called such a strategy unworkable. It is predicated, they said, on
several variables, including the Bush administration earmarking
considerable time on the Israeli-Palesntinian conflict and negotiating
concessions out of Israel. "None of this is likely to happen, even
if Abbas's Fatah group were somehow to replace Hamas in this
Western-scripted fantasy, Abbas would be handed his third betrayal by the
United States and Israel," Malley and Siegman wrote. They cited
Abbas's appointment as prime minister and election as president.
"On both occasions, promises were made. At the time of writing,
Palestinians are still waiting," they wrote.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the West Bank and Israel in
December of 2006 on behalf of Palestinian moderates. "The next few
weeks should be a critical time for the Middle East," Blair said,
after meeting with Abbas in Ramallah. "If the international
community really means what it says about supporting people who share the
vision of a two-state solution, who are moderate, who are prepared to
shoulder their responsibilities, then now is the time for the
international community to respond." Violence, meanwhile, continued
to escalate. Five days before Blair spoke, gunmen ambushed the entourage
of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, wounding his son. In addition,
a security official working for Abbas was seriously wounded in another
shooting. Killings continued despite an announced ceasefire. Abbas stood
by his call for early elections. "I want
the people to choose," he said, according to United Press
International.

Hamas has nearly two-thirds of the seats in the Legislative Council.
According to the UPI, a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for
Policy and Survey Research in December of 2006 said if an election were
held then, Fatah would get 42 percent of the votes and Hamas 36
percent—and the gap had been widening of late. In addition, the
poll said, a presidential election would be too close to call, with Abbas
receiving 46 percent, Haniyeh 45 percent, and about nine percent
undecided. The UPI's Joshua Brilliant wrote: "One wonders
whether Abbas would really order early elections when Fatah and his own
lead are so small. Abbas's tactic in threatening to call early
elections was to prove Hamsas's policies hurt the
Palestinians."

Held Summit with Olmert

On December 23, 2006, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held
their first meeting, in Jerusalem, and Olmert promised him during the
two-hour session to release $100 million in Palestinian funds that Israel
had frozen, and remove some West Bank checkpoints. Olmert had taken over
as prime minister after Sharon suffered an incapacitating stroke the
previous January. It was the first meeting between Israeli and Palestinian
leaders in nearly two years. "Olmert and Abbas, weakened by
political troubles at home, are seeking to bolster their positions by
showing progress in peace efforts," Joel Greenberg wrote in the
Chicago Tribune
. Olmert's office, according to the newspaper, released a statement
saying the pair had agreed to meet more frequently, and agreed "the
time has come to advance the peace process via concrete steps."

The two parties, however, had still not agreed on a prisoner release, a
major contention point. Olmert would not free Palestinian prisoners unless
the Palestinians would do likewise with Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad
Shalit, who has been detained in the Gaza Strip since Hamas militants and
two affiliated groups corralled him in a raid the previous June.

Old Guard Would Not Let Go

Abbas announced that Rice would visit the Middle East in January of 2007,
as a follow-up to her meetings with Abbas and Olmert late in 2006. He said
he would float the idea of a "back channel" for negotiations
with Israel. Abbas and Egypt, a pivotal moderator, favor bypassing the
prescribed U.S. "road map" for Middle East peace.

Khaled Abu Toameh, in the
Jerusalem Post
, said Fatah would be beatable in another election. Toameh added:
"Ever since Fatah lost the election about one year ago, its leaders
have been too busy searching for ways to return to power at any
cost."

The majority of Palestinians, Steven Erlanger wrote in the
New York Times
, perceive Abbas as a "great disappointment." Erlanger
quoted Palestinian political analyst Khaled Duzdar as saying Abbas has not
declared a state of emergency in the Palestinian territories because he
cannot implement one. "Abbas today is a weak reed, with little
power to carry out his decrees or his will," Erlanger wrote.

Abbas and his wife, Amina, have three sons, Mazen, Yaser, and Tareq. Abbas
also has seven grandchildren. Abbas once had surgery in the United States
for prostate cancer.